Profs will fight to the finish - on pianos

Jan. 9, 2013

Written by

Larry Collins

FOR THE NEWS-LEADER

The Springfield Symphony’s “A Musical Duel” ushers in a busy new year at Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts. The classical concert is the first of a dozen late-winter events that offer music, dance and theatrical displays of every stripe.

Leading the orchestra Saturday is guest conductor Markand Thakar, candidate number three for the post vacated by Ron Spigelman. Thakar is music director of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra in Minnesota and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. He is also principal conductor of the Duluth Festival Opera.

The program features Missouri State University music professors Hye-Jung Hong and Wei-Han Su in Francis Poulenc’s witty work for dueling ivories, Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in D minor. Also on the bill are Tchaikovsky’s brooding yet lyrical Symphony No. 5 in E minor and Mendelssohn’s picturesque “The Hebrides” concert overture, which opens the show at 7:30 p.m.

For tickets ($10-$30), call 836-7678 or go to www.missouristatetix.com. You can preview the music by tuning in “Symphony in the Ozarks” at 10 a.m. Wednesday on KSMU 91.1 FM. If you’d like an up-close encounter with Maestro Thakar, attend Thursday’s 5:30 p.m. “Behind the Baton” get-together at Newk’s Express Café, 2639 S. Glenstone Ave.

The orchestra returns Feb. 16 to reveal its lighter side in “A Sinatra & Friends Tribute,” a “pops” concert featuring guest conductor Vincent Falcone and vocalist Bob Anderson. The remaining candidates for permanent music director lead classical concerts on March 23 (Kyle Pickett), April 27 (Diane Wittry) and May 11 (Marc Taddei).

Terpsichorean pleasures are offered by jazz-based Giordano Dance Chicago on Jan. 25. One week later, Latin jazz rhythms percolate throughout “West Side Story,” a Broadway series entry in town for three performances Feb. 1-2. The Tony and Oscar-winning Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim classic boasts such evergreens as “Tonight,” “Maria,” “I Feel Pretty,” “Mambo” and “America.”

(Page 2 of 2)

Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues” lands Feb. 19 courtesy of Montana Repertory Theatre. The 1985 comedy, set in an army training camp in 1943, is the middle play in a semiautobiographical trilogy that includes “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Broadway Bound.”

Family theater is also represented this winter, first by Kansas City-based Coterie Theatre’s “Tell-Tale Electric Poe” on Feb. 8, then by Imago Theatre’s “ZooZoo,” a comedic blend of acrobatics and magic that plays Feb. 17.

It’s back to the Big Apple on March 1-2 with the musical theater tribute “100 Years of Broadway.” Five singers perform songs from such hits as “Cabaret,” “Les Miserables” and “Phantom of the Opera,” while composer/producer Neil Barg offers anecdotes about the creation of each show. The Broadway series concludes April 5-6 with “The Addams Family,” a stage musical based on the macabre clan created by Charles Addams.

Bidding winter adieu on March 20 is Hot Club of San Francisco, a five-piece band whose “Cinema Vivant” program echoes the style of 1930s guitar and violin masters Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. The players will provide live soundtracks for three films of the silent era.